Electronic device and method using a touch-detecting surface

ABSTRACT

An electronic device includes a processor and one or more touch-detecting surfaces for detecting a gesture sequence including a first touch gesture and a subsequent second touch gesture. A related method includes detecting a first touch gesture applied to the touch-detecting surface; and initiating a sequential touch mode if the first touch gesture has a predetermined characteristic. When in the sequential touch mode, the method detects a second touch gesture that is subsequently applied to the touch-detecting surface, wherein the second touch gesture includes a glide movement. The method determines a first parameter and a second parameter associated with the second touch gesture, identifies a corresponding device function in accordance with the determined first parameter, and controls the execution of the identified device function in accordance with the determined second parameter.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to sequential touch gestures forsimulating simultaneous touch gestures using a touch-detecting surfaceof an electronic device.

BACKGROUND

Electronic devices such as mobile phones, smart phones, and otherhandheld or portable electronic devices such as personal digitalassistants (PDAs), audio players, headsets, etc. have become popular andubiquitous. As more and more features have been added to such devices,there has been an increasing desire to equip them with input/outputmechanisms that accommodate numerous user commands and/or react tonumerous user behaviors. For example, many mobile devices are nowequipped not only with various buttons and/or keypads, but also withtouch-detecting surfaces such as touch screens or touch pads by which auser, simply by touching the surface of the mobile device and/or movingthe user's finger along the surface of the mobile device, is able tocommunicate to the mobile device a variety of instructions.

A so-called multi-touch touch-detecting surface allows for the detectionof multiple touches that occur simultaneously, while a single-touchtouch-detecting surface only allows for the detection of a single touchat a time. Multi-touch surfaces are advantageous in that various gesturecombinations performed using two or more simultaneous touches (such asusing two fingers) are detectable, so that a richer and more varied setof device functions (such as scaling and translation) can be controlledin a straightforward manner. For example, two fingers moving apart on amulti-touch touch-detecting surface can be used to zoom out on anassociated map or document or photograph, while two fingers movingtogether can be used to zoom in. Also, two fingers moving togetheracross a multi-touch touch-detecting surface can be used to translate anitem at twice the speed compared to moving just one finger across thetouch-detecting surface. However, multi-touch touch-detecting surfacesare in general more expensive and complex than single-touchtouch-detecting surfaces, so that single-touch surfaces are advantageousfrom a cost and simplicity standpoint. Further, in certaincircumstances, it can be difficult for a user to interact with anelectronic device using simultaneous touches, such as when a user hasonly one finger (e.g., a thumb) available for touch interaction orotherwise has limited finger mobility due to, for example, injury orarthritis.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view of an exemplary electronic device that employs asingle-touch touch-detecting surface wherein the electronic device iscapable of emulating a multi-touch touch-detecting surface in accordancewith one embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing exemplary components of the electronicdevice of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 5A, and 5B show in schematic form severalexemplary gesture sequences in accordance with some embodiments; and

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing exemplary steps of a method that can beperformed by the electronic device of FIGS. 1 and 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

An electronic device with a processor and one or more touch-detectingsurfaces detects sequential touches, identifies a corresponding gesturesequence, and operates to control the execution of various devicefunctions such as a scaling function (zooming in and out), a translationfunction (scrolling and panning), and a rotation function, which areassociated with an item displayed on a display screen of the electronicdevice. A corresponding method controls the execution of such electronicdevice functions. The functionality of an electronic device having amulti-touch touch-detecting surface and capable of detecting multiplesimultaneous touches can be emulated using sequential touches on atouch-detecting surface, providing a simpler user experience becausesimultaneous touches are not required. The touch-detecting surface cantake the form of a single-touch touch-detecting surface, therebyproviding simplicity and saving cost as compared to the use of amulti-touch touch-detecting surface. The touch-detecting surface canalternately be a multi-touch touch-detecting surface that receivessingle-touch user interactions. The touch-detecting surfaces can be anyof a variety of known touch-detecting technologies such as a resistivetechnology, a capacitive technology, an optical technology, or others.

Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary electronic device 102 is shown as amobile smart phone, which can include various functions such as email,messaging, and internet browsing functions, as well as various otherfunctions. In other embodiments, the device can be one of a variety ofother electronic devices such as a personal digital assistant, an audioand/or video player, a headset, a navigation device, a notebook, laptopor other computing device, or any other device that can utilize orbenefit from a touch-detecting surface. The touch-detecting surface canbe either a touch screen or a touch pad. As illustrated, device 102includes a touch-detecting surface 104 which can be a light permeablepanel or other technology which overlaps a display screen 106 to createa touch screen on all or a portion of the display screen 106. A touchscreen is advantageous because an item being manipulated can bedisplayed directly underlying the touch-detecting surface on whichcontrolling touch gestures are applied. The electronic device 102 canalso include a keypad 108 having numerous keys for inputting varioususer commands for operation of the device.

Referring to FIG. 2, a block diagram 200 illustrates exemplary internalcomponents of the mobile smart phone implementation of the electronicdevice 102. These components can include wireless transceivers 202, aprocessor 204 (e.g., a microprocessor, microcomputer,application-specific integrated circuit, or the like), memory 206, oneor more output components 208, one or more input components 210, and oneor more sensors 228. The device can also include a component interface212 to provide a direct connection to auxiliary components oraccessories for additional or enhanced functionality, and a power supply214, such as a battery, for providing power to the other internalcomponents. All of the internal components can be coupled to oneanother, and in communication with one another, by way of one or moreinternal communication links 232 such as an internal bus.

More specifically, the wireless transceivers 202 can include bothcellular transceivers 203 and a wireless local area network (WLAN)transceiver 205. Each of the wireless transceivers 202 utilizes awireless technology for communication, such as cellular-basedcommunication technologies including analog communications (using AMPS),digital communications (using CDMA, TDMA, GSM, iDEN, GPRS, EDGE, etc.),and next generation communications (using UMTS, WCDMA, LTE, IEEE 802.16,etc.) or variants thereof, or peer-to-peer or ad hoc communicationtechnologies such as HomeRF, Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 (a, b, g or n),or other wireless communication technologies.

The memory 206 can encompass one or more memory devices of any of avariety of forms (e.g., read-only memory, random access memory, staticrandom access memory, dynamic random access memory, etc.), and can beused by the processor 204 to store and retrieve data. The data that isstored by the memory portion 206 can include operating systems,applications, and informational data. Each operating system includesexecutable code that controls basic functions of the communicationdevice, such as interaction among the various internal components,communication with external devices via the wireless transceivers 202and/or the component interface 212, and storage and retrieval ofapplications and data to and from the memory portion 206. Eachapplication includes executable code that utilizes an operating systemto provide more specific functionality for the communication devices,such as file system service and handling of protected and unprotecteddata stored in the memory portion 206. Informational data isnon-executable code or information that can be referenced and/ormanipulated by an operating system or application for performingfunctions of the communication device.

Exemplary operation of the wireless transceivers 202 in conjunction withothers of the internal components 200 of the electronic device 102 cantake a variety of forms and can include, for example, operation inwhich, upon reception of wireless signals, the internal componentsdetect communication signals and the transceiver 202 demodulates thecommunication signals to recover incoming information, such as voiceand/or data, transmitted by the wireless signals. After receiving theincoming information from the transceiver 202, the processor 204 formatsthe incoming information for the one or more output devices 208.Likewise, for transmission of wireless signals, the processor 204formats outgoing information, which may or may not be activated by theinput devices 210, and conveys the outgoing information to one or moreof the wireless transceivers 202 for modulation as communicationsignals. The wireless transceiver(s) 202 convey the modulated signals toa remote device, such as a cell tower or an access point (not shown).

The output components 210 can include a variety of visual, audio, and/ormechanical outputs. For example, the output devices 208 can include oneor more visual output devices 216 including the display screen 106,which can be a liquid crystal display. One or more audio output devices218 can include a speaker, alarm, and/or buzzer, and a mechanical outputdevice 220 can include a vibrating mechanism for example. Similarly, theinput devices 210 can include one or more visual input devices 222 suchas an optical sensor of a camera, an audio input device 224 such as amicrophone, and a mechanical input device 226. In particular, themechanical input device 226 can include, among other things, thetouch-detecting surface 104, and the keypad 108 of FIG. 1. Actions thatcan actuate one or more input devices 210 can include for example,opening the electronic device, unlocking the device, moving the device,and operating the device.

The sensors 228 can include both proximity sensors 229 and other sensors231, such as an accelerometer, a gyroscope, or any other sensor that canprovide pertinent information, such as to identify a current location ororientation of the device 102.

The touch-detecting surface 104 provides a signal via link 232 to theprocessor 204 indicative of an applied touch gesture. The processormonitors output signals from the touch-detecting surface 104 and, inconjunction therewith, can detect applied touch gestures havingappropriate characteristics, and can determine a location (e.g.,co-ordinates) of the applied touch on the touch-detecting surface 104.As more fully described below, the processor 204 can also be programmedto determine one or more other parameters associated with a touchgesture, such as a relative location with respect to another touchgesture, a movement amount (e.g., a touch distance), a direction, aspeed, and/or a duration of a glide movement portion of the touchgesture. Further, the processor can be programmed to identify a touchgesture sequence and thus a corresponding device function to controlaccording to one or more of the determined parameters. For example, therelative location of first and second touch gestures and/or a glidemovement direction or movement pattern can be used to determine whetherthe touch gesture sequence is one associated with a scaling function, arotation function, or a translation function, such that instructions canthen be generated to control the execution of the corresponding devicefunction in accordance with another of the determined parameters, suchas a glide movement touch distance.

Controlling device functions of the device 102 with a sequence ofsingle-touch touch gestures is explained with reference to FIGS. 3-5.These figures illustrate various examples of a touch gesture sequenceused to control the display of an item (such as a picture, web page,map, text block, etc) on the display screen 106 of the electronic deviceusing the touch-detecting surface 104. Specifically, FIGS. 3( a)-3(b)illustrate a touch gesture sequence for controlling a scaling functionof the electronic device 102, such as to zoom in and zoom out on adisplayed item. FIGS. 4( a)-4(b) illustrate a touch gesture sequence forcontrolling a translation function of a displayed item on the electronicdevice, and FIGS. 5( a)-5(b) illustrate a touch gesture sequence forcontrolling a rotation function of a displayed item on the electronicdevice. Various other touch gesture sequences can be defined to controlother electronic device functions as well.

In particular, as shown in FIG. 3( a), a first single-touch touchgesture can be applied on the touch detecting surface 104, such as atlocation 300. As shown in FIG. 3( b), the first touch gesture can befollowed by a second single-touch touch gesture beginning at an initiallocation 302, wherein the second touch gesture includes a glide movementas indicated by arrow 304. Because the second touch gesture begins atlocation 302, which is to the left of location 300 for example, this canindicate that a scaling (zoom) function is desired. In other words, thestarting point of the second touch gesture, relative to the first touchgesture (e.g., to the left), may indicate the desired function. Becausethe glide movement of the second touch gesture occurs in a lineardirection away from location 300, this can indicate that a zoom outscaling function is desired. Thus, the direction of the glide movementmay control the execution of the function. To zoom in, a linear glidemovement could be directed toward the first touch location 300. Thecenter of the scaling function can be defined by the location 300, bythe location 302, or by a midpoint between these locations, and theamount of scaling can correspond to a touch distance of the glidemovement.

The touch gestures can be provided by way of touching thetouch-detecting surface 104 by various means, including for exampleusing a finger (including a thumb), fingernail, hand or portion thereof,or a stylus device. In some embodiments, the touch-detecting surface 104can be activated by way of other types of actions, such as by swiping,pinching, and applying pressure, which actions are all consideredtouches. However, the touch-detecting surface 104 need not be capable ofdistinguishing between different pressures or forces of touches.Further, as used herein, a glide movement occurs when a finger or otherobject remains in contact with the touch detecting surface, for anamount determined by the user and as more fully described below.

The touch gesture sequence of FIGS. 3( a)-(b) can have the same effectas a gesture wherein two fingers simultaneously touching a multi-touchtouch-detecting surface are moved apart to zoom out on a displayed item(or moved together to zoom in on a displayed item).

FIGS. 4( a)-4(b) illustrate a touch gesture sequence for controlling atranslation function of the device 102 display controller, such as tomove (scroll, pan) a displayed item or object or portion thereof suchthat a different portion of that item is then viewable on the displayscreen 106. In particular, as shown in FIG. 4( a), a first single-touchtouch gesture can be applied such as at a location 400 of thetouch-detecting surface 104. As shown in FIG. 4( b), the first touchgesture can be followed by a second single-touch touch gesture at aninitial location 402, wherein the second touch gesture includes a glidemovement as indicated by arrow 404, wherein a finger or other objectremains in contact with the touch detecting surface for a measurableamount. In this example, because the second touch gesture begins atlocation 402, which is to the right of location 400, this can indicatethat a translation function is desired. In one embodiment, the secondtouch gesture alone (defined by a location 402 and glide movementdefined by arrow 404) would result in a translation of the displayedimage roughly equivalent to the speed and direction of the glidemovement. However, the illustrated touch gesture sequence can be used toincrease the translation speed of an item on the display screen by apredetermined factor such as two (indicated by arrow 406), such that itcan have the same (or similar) effect as a multi-touch gesture whereintwo fingers are simultaneously touching a multi-touch touch-detectingsurface and are moved together along the surface to scroll or pan on adisplayed item at an increased speed as compared to the use of a singlefinger glide movement. Scrolling up could be controlled by gliding 404up instead of down. Similarly, scrolling left could be controlled bygliding left, and scrolling right could be controlled by gliding right.

FIGS. 5( a)-5(b) illustrate a touch gesture sequence for controlling arotation function of the device 102, in order to rotate an item on thedisplay screen 106 to effect a desired orientation of the item on thedisplay screen. Again, a first touch gesture can be applied at alocation 500, followed by a subsequent second touch gesture including aglide movement, such as in an arc denoted by arrow 504, starting from aninitial location 502. Because the second gesture begins at location 502,which is to the left of area 500 this can indicate, for example, thateither a zoom function or a rotation function is desired. Because thesubsequent glide movement is arc-like, the processor can determine thata rotation function is desired. If the glide movement had been linear, azoom function would have been implemented.

The arc 504 is shown as counter-clockwise, which can control therotation in a counter-clockwise direction. If the arc was in a clockwisedirection, the displayed item's rotation would be controlled in aclockwise direction. The rotation of the item can occur around an axisdefined by the location 500 of the first touch gesture, the startinglocation 502 of the second touch gesture, or at a midpoint between theselocations, and the amount of rotation (e.g., degrees of rotation) of theobject can correspond to the amount of the glide movement. This touchgesture can have the same effect as a gesture wherein two fingers aresimultaneously touching a multi-touch touch-detecting surface and one isrotating around the other (or both touches are rotating about a centerpoint) to effect rotation of a displayed item.

Referring now to FIG. 6, a flowchart 600 is shown which includesexemplary steps of operation of the electronic device 102. The processstarts at a step 602 when the electronic device is turned on for use oris otherwise initialized in a known manner. Next, at a step 604, theelectronic device monitors user inputs, though remains in a single-touchmode.

At a step 606, the electronic device detects whether a first touchgesture is applied to the touch detecting surface 104. If not,processing proceeds to step 604, and if so, processing proceeds to astep 607. At a step 607, it is determined whether a proper first touchgesture has occurred, that is, whether the first touch gesture has acharacteristic such that indicates that a sequential single-touch modeshould be initiated. A proper first touch gesture occurs for examplewhen a touch gesture is applied to the touch-detecting surface for aduration that is greater than a predetermined duration. For thispurpose, the processor can be programmed to determine a duration of theapplied first touch gesture. In other embodiments, a proper first touchgesture can be one that is defined by another predeterminedcharacteristic, such as being applied to a designated location of thetouch-detecting surface.

If a proper first touch gesture is not detected, then processingproceeds to step 609. At step 609, the touch gesture is processed as anormal (non-sequence) single-touch touch gesture. If a proper firsttouch gesture is detected, then processing proceeds to step 608.

At step 608, the electronic device determines and records the locationof the first touch gesture, and continues to monitor user inputs.Processing then proceeds to a step 610, at which the electronic devicedetermines whether a proper second touch gesture is applied to the touchdetecting surface. A proper second touch gesture can occur for examplewhen a second touch gesture is applied to a location on thetouch-detecting surface, such as a second designated touch area, and/orif the second touch gesture occurs within a predetermined time from thefirst touch gesture, and/or if a stationary portion of the second touchgesture is applied for a duration that is greater than a predeterminedduration. For example, if there is no second touch gesture after apredetermined time period such as two seconds, then a proper secondtouch gesture is not detected.

If a proper second touch gesture is not detected, then processing againproceeds to step 604. If a proper second touch gesture is detected, thenprocessing proceeds to step 612. At step 612, a first parameter and asecond parameter of the second touch gesture are determined in order toidentify a corresponding device function to be controlled at a step 614and to control the identified device function in a desired way at a step616.

With respect to the first parameter, this can be a relative location ofthe second touch gesture's initial location with respect to the firsttouch gesture's location. For example, with reference to FIGS. 3(a)-(b), 4(a)-(b), and FIG. 5( a)-(b), a second touch gesture that isapplied to the left of an applied first touch gesture can be used toindicate that a zoom function or a rotation function is desired, and asecond touch gesture that is applied to the right of an applied firsttouch gesture can be used to indicate that a translation function isdesired. In some cases, the relative location of the first and secondtouch gestures can also be used in combination with the glide movementthat occurs as part of the second touch gesture. For example, a secondtouch gesture starting to the left of a first touch gesture incombination with an arc-like glide movement can be used to indicate thata rotation function is desired and a second touch gesture starting tothe right of a first touch gesture, in combination with a linear glidemovement can be used to indicate that a zoom function is desired. Thusat step 614, the electronic device can identify the correspondingfunction to be controlled based on the determined first parameter.

At step 616, the device can control the execution of the identifieddevice function based on the determined second parameter. With respectto the second parameter, this can be a movement amount (touch distance)of the glide movement, a movement shape (e.g., linear or arcuate), amovement direction (e.g., toward or away from the first touch location;a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction; a clockwise orcounter-clockwise direction; etc.), or a glide movement's duration orspeed. A movement amount of a glide movement can be determined atvarious points during the glide movement and can then be used to controla corresponding function, such as to control the amount of scaling, theamount of translation, or the amount of rotation of a displayed item.After the glide movement is completed (for example when a finger isremoved from the touch-detecting surface), the control of the devicefunction can be terminated.

At a step 618, the device determines whether the sequentialtouch-detecting routine has been turned off. If not, the process returnsto step 604. If so, the process ends at step 620.

By utilizing a touch-detecting surface to recognize two or morepredefined single-touch gestures in sequence, the functionality providedby a multi-touch touch-detecting surface can be achieved, and touchgesture sequences which are easy to perform can be defined.

It is specifically intended that the present invention not be limited tothe embodiments and illustrations contained herein, but include modifiedforms of those embodiments, including portions of the embodiments andcombinations of elements of different embodiments as come within thescope of the following claims.

I claim:
 1. An electronic device comprising: a touch-detecting surface;and at least one processor in electronic communication with thetouch-detecting surface, the at least one processor being programmed to:receive an indication of a first touch gesture performed at thetouch-detecting surface; responsive to determining that the first touchgesture has a predetermined characteristic, initiate a sequential touchmode of the electronic device; responsive to initiating the sequentialtouch mode, receive an indication of a second touch gesture performed atthe touch-detecting surface, wherein the second touch gesture includes aglide movement, and wherein the second touch gesture is performedsubsequent to completion of the first touch gesture; determine a firstparameter and a second parameter of the second touch gesture, whereinthe first parameter represents an initial location of the second touchgesture relative to a location of the first touch gesture; determine,based at least in part on the first parameter, a device function from aplurality of device functions of the electronic device; and controlexecution of the device function in accordance with the secondparameter.
 2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the at least oneprocessor programmed to initiate the sequential touch mode of thecomputing device is programmed to: initiate the sequential touch mode ifa duration of the first touch gesture is greater than a predeterminedduration.
 3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the at least oneprocessor is further programmed to: determine whether the second touchgesture occurred within a predetermined period after the first touchgesture; and responsive to determining that the second touch gesture didnot occur within the predetermined period, exit the sequential touchmode.
 4. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the at least oneprocessor is further programmed to: determine whether the second touchgesture continues for a duration greater than a predetermined duration;and responsive to determining that the second touch gesture continuesfor the duration greater than the predetermined duration, exit thesequential touch mode.
 5. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein thedevice function of the electronic device comprises at least one of ascaling function, a translation function, or a rotation function.
 6. Theelectronic device of claim 1, wherein the device function modifies adisplay of an item displayed at a display screen of the electronicdevice.
 7. A method comprising: receiving, by a computing device, anindication of a first touch gesture performed at a touch-detectingsurface; responsive to determining that the first touch gesture has apredetermined characteristic, initiating, by the computing device, asequential touch mode of the computing device; responsive to initiatingthe sequential touch mode, receiving, by the computing device, anindication of a second touch gesture performed at the touch-detectingsurface, wherein the second touch gesture includes a glide movement, andwherein the second touch gesture is performed subsequent to completionof the first touch gesture; determining, by the computing device, afirst parameter and a second parameter associated with the second touchgesture, wherein the first parameter represents an initial location ofthe second touch gesture relative to a location of the first touchgesture; determining, by the computing device and based at least in parton the first parameter, a device function from a plurality of devicefunctions of the computing device; and controlling, by the computingdevice, execution of the device function in accordance with the secondparameter.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein initiating the sequentialtouch mode comprises initiating the sequential touch mode if theduration of the applied first touch gesture is greater than apredetermined duration.
 9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:determining whether the second touch gesture occurred within apredetermined period after the first touch gesture; and responsive todetermining that the second touch gesture did not occur within thepredetermined period, exiting the sequential touch mode.
 10. The methodof claim 7, further comprising: determining whether the second touchgesture continues for a duration less than a predetermined duration; andresponsive to determining that the second touch gesture continues forthe duration less than the predetermined duration, exiting thesequential touch mode.
 11. The method of claim 7, wherein the devicefunction comprises at least one of a scaling function, a translationfunction, or a rotation function.
 12. The method of claim 11, whereinthe device function modifies a display of an item displayed at a displayscreen.
 13. The method of claim 7, wherein the second parametercomprises one of a distance, a duration, or a speed of the glidemovement.
 14. The method of claim 7, wherein determining the firstparameter includes determining a movement pattern of the glide movementand wherein determining the device function includes identifying thedevice function in accordance with the determined movement pattern. 15.The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the at least one processorprogrammed to determine the device function is programmed to: responsiveto determining that the first parameter indicates that the initiallocation of the second touch gesture is to a first side of the locationof the first touch gesture, determine a first device function; andresponsive to determining that the first parameter indicates that theinitial location of the second touch gesture is to a second side of thelocation of the first touch gesture, determine a second device function,wherein the second side is opposite the first side, and wherein thesecond device function is different from the first device function. 16.The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the first side comprises anarea of the touch-detecting surface to the right of the location of thefirst touch gesture, and wherein the second side comprises an area ofthe touch-detecting surface to the left of the location of the firsttouch gesture.
 17. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the firstside comprises an area of the touch-detecting surface above the locationof the first touch gesture, and wherein the second side comprises anarea of the touch-detecting surface below the location of the firsttouch gesture.
 18. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the firstdevice function comprises a zoom function, and wherein the second devicefunction comprises a translation function.
 19. The method of claim 7,wherein determining the device function comprises: responsive todetermining that the first parameter indicates that the initial locationof the second touch gesture is to a first side of the location of thefirst touch gesture, determining a first device function; and responsiveto determining that the first parameter indicates that the initiallocation of the second touch gesture is to a second side of the locationof the first touch gesture, determining a second device function,wherein the second side is opposite the first side, and wherein thesecond device function is different from the first device function.